Will your job be around five years from now? If so, how different will the work be?
The technologies that course through the network are changing dramatically, demanding entirely different skill sets and expertise. What was Sonet and ATM is becoming Ethernet. What was a central office (CO) is becoming a data center, a video hub, a content cache. So what about the people that work there?
In a 2008 Telephony story on the central office of the future, Verizon’s vice president of network architecture Stuart Elby told me, “I don’t have a sophisticated IT force in every CO, and I can’t envision doing that. That’s just too much retraining to say, ‘OK, you’re not going to work on a cross-connect anymore, you’ll manage a Sun server.’”
Entirely separate categories of products are merging, requiring the expertise of completely distinct tribes to master a single box. Routers come with optical components. Switches are integrated into blade servers. And Ethernet is comingling with legacy traffic and multiplexed wavelengths in the same box.
And it’s not just about migrating from one technology to the next. Regardless of where it sits in the network, one of the features network equipment vendors most consistently promote is their products’ ability to reduce labor expenses by eliminating either people or tasks (and if you eliminate enough tasks, you can eliminate people). Whether it’s ROADMs, passive optical networks, automated patch panels or even cross-country optical provisioning, the gear is all being designed to reduce the need for people.
At the same time, equipment vendors are increasingly taking over network operations. As part of an outsourcing deal last year, Embarq network operators became Nokia Siemens employees, and their fiber installers left that task to Corning. Across the ocean, meanwhile, BT employees became Alcatel-Lucent employees in a similar deal.
What does this all mean for the future of jobs in the telecom business?
Telephony is launching an interactive feature (like this one) to address these questions, and we need your help. Post your thoughts on this subject in the comments section below, and we will include the most thoughtful ones in an upcoming cover feature in Telephony’s print magazine. (See, we’re outsourcing labor, too.) My colleagues are each focusing on a piece of this puzzle; here’s mine: How are equipment vendors – through the evolving technology in their products and their evolving role in carrier operations – changing the future of the telecom job market? How are they changing the expertise and skill sets needed? And how will today’s telecom workforce respond?
We want to hear your thoughts. Please leave a comment below. And then get back to work.
First of all for someone who’s been in the industry for 30 years the prospect we’re discussing is very scary. When I first hired on with United Telephone of Indiana (aka Embarq) I was a central office technician. Analog crossbar was the technology. Soon afterward (90 days) the union and company negotiated a new title of Communications Technician making us all carrier tech’s. Three years later came digital switching. This was a little of odd because carrier had been digital for awhile but until the switch became the digital carrier was the odd techology. Digital switching was king of the central office until recently with the advent of wireless and DSL. Today’s emerging technology is just another step in the communication road.
While big companies hail this and see this as $$ signs in their eyes the labor saving will cause wave upon wave of new Clecs not yet born or even conceived. I see this as a competative edge against big business and a boom for the little guy. This is going to be a real game changer. The old ideas that kept newbies bottled up and beaten back as they presented cutting edge services and cpe will overthrow MA Bell like mentality that is still keeping us in the Dark ages. The new generation is about to be unleashed. The next basement to giant story is about to emerge. New nimble minded people will beat back those with strict mecahnical business mined approaches. Like an old song I used to hear,, Turn me loose , turn me loose, I got to have my way, I got to flyyyyy!
For todays technician to survive you have to constantly update your training. The ones that survive will be the ones that stay with the emeging technology. A technician has to educate themselves if they are to survive in todays ever increasing competitive market.
How are equipment vendors….? 5 years ago to integrate a Mobile Switching Center we don’t need much knowledge on IP. Now we are implementing Cisco routers, media gateways together with the core networks. I have to self-study CCNA in order for me to have knowledge about Cisco routers. IP is creeping very fast because signaling is done over IP now. The equipments involved are getting smaller.
How will today’s telecom….? I believe this is a two-way effort. Companies should provide training. Hiring companies should be able to accept applications from individuals who have enough knowledge in telecoms. Soon we will have shortage of people with IP skills. I hope companies will open their doors. The other effort should come from employees who are willing to learn.
I hope someday there would be an open source router and easy to learn with type of equipment.
From working in a central office environment, I’ve been waiting for the “black-box” technology that is suppose to reduce work force (i.e. no more manual cross-connects). One of the things that keeps us techs around is the reliability of equipment is not always perfect. Circuuit cards of some type are always breaking. This becomes more vital as equipment are handling more bandwidth and faster speeds.
So much to say, such a little box… A purely objective and shortsighted view (IMHO) would be that the ordinary techs need to educate themselves to keep up. A far sighted company (very few in number) would provide the means for that to easily happen, inclduing within the parameters of current employment. But that is simply not happening. Certainly general knowledge of new technologies is very helfpul, but the implementation of these technologies but each company makes there operation and maintenance very different. This is not knowledge that you can skip over the the local community college to acquire. It only comes from working on the specific equipment itself, from installation through turn up to maintanence. The structure of most companies is not conducive to this, so the techs are falling futher behind. Cynics (like me perhaps…) might believe that is by design, but it also effective cuts of techs from ownership of the equipment that they are supposed to maintain. Despite the best efforts of designers – and marketeers… – the equipment does still require hands on techs to a significant degree. Very few are in a position to be effective in that regard now, as the companies move to what they believe is a much more effective “remote” (NOC) model. I believe that it is perhaps cheaper, but the ‘effect’ will be know more over time when the equipment must be touched to resolve increasingly more complicated problems in the field (perhaps remote access isn’t even available) and there will be no one there who knows what to do or how to do it.
As someone who has been in the OSP Engineering field for over 20 years these changes are both scary and exciting. Being out of work now for over a year (at least in this field) I’m wondering if the skills I have will be adequate to find work once the economy improves or if I’ve become a “dinosaur”. I did take a prep course several years ago with the idea of getting my MCSE+I certification. Looks like I may have been slightly ahead of the curve. Sounds as though I may need to dust off some of those books. I look forward to future articles to see exactly what I need to do to remain competitive in this market. C
I have been in the telephony field for most of my adult life. I got my start in the National Guard where they trained me on outside cabling, then sent me to a school that taught AT&T cable splicing techniques. Having a hard time turning that into a civilian career, I turned to inside plant, and that is where I have been since.
I love this work, it is very technical and can be difficult if you do not understand electrical characteristics. But, that is not all you now also need to know about computers, and networks!! What a change this industry has undergone, and wow what a future it still has. One thing to keep in mind is that most businesses can do without computers and still make money, but you take away their phones and well might as well close the doors.
There is a major press to switch to IP technology, but no five 9’s reliability yet, although it is close. Thing is everyone has been so accustomed to picking up their phone and there is the dial tone. With IP that is just not the case, it is more like cell phone reliability. I am getting a little off topic, but I won’t stay there long. My main point here is that although IP telephony sound great, and would be if we can get a highly reliable internet running or a separate network that just passes real-time data, we are far from going to full IP.
As a Senior level Technician I do worry that some college grad will come take my job, only to find out that they cannot do the things I can do because they are only trained on the technology side with little to no formal telephony training. You know what I mean the kind that can only really be taught on the job. I for one would like to learn more about IP and implement it more, but our current market just would not support this, and if companies like mine go away because many companies go IP, then those that don’t migrate will suffer from lack of traditional telephony knowledge, and technicians that can fix their issues.
Bottom line is that if one really sits down and does the math on the IP thing is it really going to save SMB’s any money. I dare say not yet, and that is why we have not seen migration in our market. I did read above someone said that this might be the little guys time to shine. By the time all the enterprise companies get done paying for this technology, they will need to repay the share holders, and how do they do that you might ask? One way is to reduce staff needs, but it does not eliminate it, you will still need to have staff either hired or outsourced. The other way is to raise prices!!
As a Technician I need to keep up, or become that proverbial dinosaur, so I will continue to learn. It is not easy for a someone in my shoes as the necessary training is expensive and by the time it gets to our market I may be retired.
Technicians like myself would be great assets to this new market, not only to build it right, but to teach those just entering how it was done, so when they run across an older system or infrastructure they will know what to do.
I could go on and on, but I will leave you all with this thought: “Change is inevitable, to survive you must adapt.” Not sure exactly where that comes from, but it is my motto. Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to talk about my feelings on this matter.